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Transactions. 155 



Michael's. The figures are not so absolutely reliable as those in 

 the Government censuses of subsequent years. He estimates the 

 whole population of the town as 5600 or nearly 6000 ; in the land- 

 ward part of the parish, 1200 or 1400 more. In the calculations 

 I have made for the sake of comparison I have taken the mean 

 between these, 7000. The population of the parish in 188], 

 according to the census, was 16,841, or an increase of 9841. In an 

 appendix to his book, Dr Burnside gives a detailed account of the 

 population of the New Church parish in 1795. According to this 

 statement in that year there were in the New Church parish 1014 

 families and 3800 individuals. In 1881 there were in Greyfriars' 

 parish (which has the same boundaries as the New Church parish 

 had in 1795) 949 families and 4259 persons, or a decrease of 65 

 families and an increase of 429 persons. It thus appears that the 

 large increase in the population has arisen from new houses having 

 been built and inhabited in the districts now known as the parishes 

 of St. Mary's and St. Michael's. The increase in the population 

 has been gradual. The census returns at the decennial periods of 

 this century have been as follows: 1801, 7427; 1811, 9262; 

 1821, 11,052; 1831-, 11,606; 1841, 11,409; 1851, 12,289; 1861, 

 13,323 ; 1871, 14,841 ; 1881, 16,841. In 1795 Dr Burnside and 

 Dr Scott considered that there were in the town 1488 fiimilies of 

 5860 individuals. In 1881 there were in the three parishes 3568 

 families of 16,841 individuals. If we may venture to compare these 

 figures we have in 1881 4'7 individuals to each family to 3'5 to each 

 family in 1795. This would indicate an increase in the amount of em- 

 ployment for young people. Another point of comparison leads to 

 the same conclusion. Dr Burnside states that of examinable persons 

 — meaning by that persons above seven or eight — " we have three 

 females to two males," a ijhenomenon which he accounts for by the 

 scarcity of employment for men, and by the demand for female 

 servants. The census returns for 1881 do not distinguish in any 

 way the ages of the males and females, but they do not indicate 

 that the disproportion referred to exists now to the extent which 

 Dr Burnside pointed out. In 1881 there were 9037 women and 

 7812 men, or an excess of females over males of 1225. The 

 number of births, marriages, and deaths, as computed by Dr 

 Burnside, when compared with the recent returns of the Registrar- 

 General, furnish no indication of any remarkable change in the 

 proportionate number of these events. 



